Erma Bombeck Writing Competition - Winners
2007
Erma Bombeck Writing Competition
Honorable Mention
Human Interest - Global
Sharon Cook
Beverly, Massachusetts
"My Mother's Coat"
| Growing up in the sixties, I joined the crowd of young people who questioned "organized religion." Church leaders, we felt, were part of the Establishment and dealt in hypocrisy. Before long I stopped attending church. Sundays, while my siblings were inside the chapel, I drove around in the family car. Somehow, my mother knew. She was disappointed and she never stopped encouraging me to return. Years later, when my mother passed away, I donated her clothes to the church thrift shop. While there, I spotted a notice about the upcoming Christmas Eve midnight service. For some reason I decided to attend. Snow fell that night as I walked up the church steps. Inside, tall candles flickered in the dim light while wind rattled the panes. The mournful notes issuing from the organ, coupled with the lateness of the hour, contributed to my sense of melancholy. Sitting alone in the back of the church, I was filled with regret. For many years my mother had invited me to the Christmas Eve service but I always had excuses: It was too late, too cold, too far to drive. How ironic that I should finally be attending. If only she could see me... It was close to midnight when the last of the stragglers arrived, the night air clinging to them. An elderly lady in the pew ahead of me moved down until she was sitting directly before me. There was something about her coat that caught my eye: tan tweed with a worn fur collar. It was similar to my mother's coat, one I'd donated earlier to the church thrift shop. Yet it wasn't until the woman slipped it from her shoulders that I spotted the telltale mark. My mother had always sewn strips of white elastic inside the collars of our coats in order to hang them from hooks in the hall closet. The stranger's coat had the same identical white strip. At that moment the rear doors swung open and the choir, dressed in long red robes, entered singing "Joy to the World." We, the congregation, rose as one and joined them in song: *Let heaven and angels sing!* |